James Madison’s backcourt played great, and center Elijah Hutchins-Everett provided a big game for the Dukes, who held off Jacksonville State to take third place in the inaugural Boardwalk Battle in Daytona Beach, Fla., with a 71-65 victory Saturday.
Xavier Brown scored 18 points to lead JMU (4-3), but had plenty of help. Mark Freeman added 16 points and Bryce Lindsay had 11 off the bench, reaching double figures in every game of the tournament. Elijah Hutchins-Everett had 17 points and six rebounds for the Dukes.
“We needed that,” JMU coach Preston Spradlin said in a postgame radio interview. “To know it was going to be a tough, gritty win and we needed to know we were capable of doing that. It took everybody getting in there and doing that.”…